Bad Sugar

I only got 3 out of 10 correct on the Health Equity Quiz. I was very surprised to see that American life expectancy ranks in the 29th place. I would have expected our life expectancy to be much higher considering how developed we are compared to other countries. We have access to good health care and technology so I was very surprised to see that we ranked so low. I was also surprised to see that just 50 years ago we ranked in the top 5. Since we have only been progressing and moving forward since then, I think that they fall in life expectancy must be due to lifestyle changes. This is also supported by the fact the US spends on average two and a half times as much on health care compared to other industrialized countries! I was not only shocked by these facts but also a little disturbed. We have access to good health care and practices, but our unhealthy lifestyles take over and cause us to plummet down to 29th place in life expectancy.

The video “Bad Sugar” is about the increased rate of type 2 diabetes in Pima Native Americans. Most Pima Native Americans live below the poverty line and have very limited access to nutritious foods and clean water. Instead they are forced to eat diets filled with unhealthy fast foods, which contributes to obesity and later type 2 diabetes. It was also found that the Pima had high levels of stress hormones which release more sugar into the bod, increasing blood sugar and also likely to lead to diabetes.

There are many non-genetic reasons for the increase in diabetes among Pima Native Americans. One of the biggest reasons for this increase is due to the low socioeconomic status of the Pima Native Americans. Because they live in poverty they are limited in their food resources and forced to eat unhealthy, fast food diets. This is a huge contributing factor to diabetes and overrides genetic predispositions.